Former Canton Township man shot to death

Frank Tulock, formerly of Canton Township, is shown with his son, Brennan, who turned 4 on the day his father was shot and killed in Weirton, W.Va.

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Frank Tulock was going to assist a woman screaming for help Sunday in Weirton, W.Va., but turned away when he saw the situation was being handled, only to be shot four times from behind and killed, allegedly by the teenager involved in the domestic dispute, a family member said Monday.

Tulock’s relatives in the Washington area said authorities told them the former Canton Township resident noticed others assisting the woman and started to walk away about 3 a.m. Sunday, the same day his son celebrated his fourth birthday.

“He left a lot of broken hearts behind,” said Tulock’s aunt, Cindy Campbell of Washington.

Weirton police Chief Bruce Marshall said officers responding to a call involving “shots fired” that morning found Tulock, 36, who had been living in Weirton, dead at Hudson Avenue and Orchard Street. Tulock had been shot several times with a handgun, and shell casings were found scattered in the area, Marshall said.

Marshall said the suspect in the slaying, Adam M. Barnhart, 18, of Weirton, was found hiding in overgrown thorn bushes near his residence on Hudson Avenue. Barnhart, whose Facebook information indicated he was from Wellsburg, W.Va., was charged with first-degree homicide and placed without bond in Northern Regional Jail in Moundsville. He also was jailed on $2,500 bond on a domestic violence charge.

The Tulock family said Barnhart ran into the house when the woman was screaming for help and returned with a gun.

Marshall declined to discuss a motive in the case.

Tulock, who was living on Orchard Street, was a 1995 graduate of Trinity Area High School and worked as a mechanic, Campbell said.

His friend Shannon Spencer of Washington recalled working with him in the late 1990s at Shorty’s Lunch in Washington Mall, and said he “bent over backwards” to help people.